


You Have To Be Cruel To Be Kind

by heavenbows



Category: Disney - All Media Types, Maleficent (2014)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Stefan the ultimate scumbag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-14 01:29:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11197623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heavenbows/pseuds/heavenbows
Summary: He had thought she might understand, in time, that he was doing her a kindness.





	You Have To Be Cruel To Be Kind

He had thought she might understand, in time, that he was doing her a kindness. No other man would have hesitated to plunge that dagger through her heart.

That no other man would ever have gotten so close, he put out of his mind.

Her screams whipped through the dawn and he flinched, silently begging her to fall silent – because it would unravel his plan, he told himself; it would bring others down on her.

And he himself could not bear to hear it.

But, even without wings, she was still a fairy creature. She could still walk the Moors and play with her friends and talk to the tree guardians and the Dower fairies and the little trolls and goblins.

By the time he made it back to the palace, Stefan had convinced himself that Maleficent would be short-sighted and ungrateful to hate him for this. Had he not saved her life, when he need not? Had he not let her off lightly, to say she had killed dozens of good men, right up to the king himself?

And what had she expected, he asked himself, irritated; so he had promised true love. But it could never be. They had both known that, surely? It could never be. He did not belong in the Moors, no matter how many times he might walk them – and no man in his right mind would let a king call a fairy his queen.

No, it was better for everyone this way. The king would be avenged, Stefan would be named the heir, and Maleficent would frolic through the Moors for the rest of her life, unmolested by humans.

Anguish might rule her now, but it would fade and she would understand and feel that overdue gratitude. After all, _he_ had managed to be perfectly happy without wings.


End file.
